HMV Canada - is the bell tolling for thee?

[23skidoo]

The CBC is reporting that the UK head office of HMV is mulling selling off the Canadian branch of the HMV chain. In Canada, HMV is one of the last of the big national chains dedicated to just CDs/DVDs and games. (As opposed to places like Best Buy that include them in sections, with CD sections becoming tinier by the week, it seems.)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/03/25/hmv-canada-sale.html

Doesn't mean a sale will happen. They could just decide to shut them all down. Or they'll get bought by Game Stop or something and change focus. I was actually surprised to read this because I always thought HMV Canada was a separate entity anyway - like BBC America being separate from the main BBC. The fact HMV in the UK is in trouble is worth noting beyond Canada, too - I hadn't heard that until now.

I usually get flamed for my views regarding the value of actual "brick and mortar" stores, and actual physical permanent media, so I'll refrain from editorializing further on that point (other than to say since I entered my 40s I have rapidly seen my world shrinking as more places I go to in order to get me out of the house disappear; I expect to be in full-fledged hermit mode by the time I'm 47).

One of the user comments really annoyed me, though - a guy saying something to the effect "good riddance" because all the CDs he buys he can get for cheaper at Costco (a membership-based discount superstore chain). Which is great if your interest in music begins and ends with Lady Gaga. But I'll never see a Laurie Anderson or Imelda May or Residents or Jeff Beck or Aphex Twin CD at f-ing Costco. HMV is one of the last remaining places in Canada where you can actually expect to find this stuff on the shelves. I've often found CDs and DVDs at HMV that I can't even order through Amazon, and a few years ago they brought back an idea the late, lamented A&B Sound chain had and added small book sections (real books that you'll still be able to read 5 years from now without having to renew the lease). And in my personal experience I find HMV tends to hire people who don't give you a blank stare when you ask if they carry a certain Jeff Beck CD or a DVD of a movie made before 2004 (I honestly have encountered this at places like Best Buy).

As the news story says, HMV head office hasn't made any decisions, and may do something else entirely, but I definitely see this as the bell tolling. I'll have to make plans to travel to the big HMV at West Edmonton Mall (the best-stocked location of the chain outside the UK, in my opinion) before long.

Alex

 

[species5618]

Hmmm, this would probably explain why my local HMV is selling off all its stock at 20 to 40 percent off and closing down for good...

Not a good thing, the selection (if not the prices) is far better than Best Buy or Future Shop. Looks like I may be taking a trip downtown to the big ass Superstore here in Toronto.

 

[Jax]

I am really surprised HMV is in so much trouble because I personally adore the franchise. The amount of DVD sets you can get for great prices around where I live is just brilliant and makes me want to buy EVERYTHING .

Store near here has The West Wing all 7 seasons for £49.99 dam fine TV.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Just so long as their online music store is safe, I'm good.

 

[Too Much Fun]

HMV has a lot of sentimental value to me and I have many fond memories of it being one of my favourite stores to browse since childhood. At the same time, I can't honestly say it and stores of its kind have much practical use for me anymore. I love browsing them, but I don't really have any interest in buying CDs or DVDs anymore. I buy maybe one a year, if that.

I agree that by comparison the depth of music/movie selection is pathetic in places like Costco. With such a pitiful selection, I don't think they should even bother selling that stuff...just stick to food. In these days of physical media becoming more and more marginalized, however, I don't think it really matters.

Slightly off-topic, I just found out earlier this year that HMV is U.K.-based when I was there (who knew it stood for "Her Majesty's Voice"?). I always thought it was exclusive to North America!

 

[Captain Shaw]

A little OT, I live in the UK and I went into the city of Nottingham on Wednesday and HMV had closed two of their stores including the biggest one, I'm going to miss HMV when they go. Shopping on line is not the same has browsing though a shop.

 

[Canadave]

The last time I was in Future Shop (Canadian version of Best Buy, owned by them, and they like to pretend that they compete with one another) I didn't even see any CDs, aside from one tiny rack of recent bestsellers. Sign of the times, I guess, but it's still a little weird to see.

 

[WeAreTheBorg]

I'm surprised they lasted this long. As with Blockbuster.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Charlottetown never had an HMV, so my dealings with them have been fairly limited. But I frequented the Rideau Mall branch quite regularly the year I was studying at Carleton in Ottawa, and quite liked it; the selection was very impressive.

 

[Holdfast]

Slightly off-topic, I just found out earlier this year that HMV is U.K.-based when I was there (who knew it stood for "Her Majesty's Voice"?). I always thought it was exclusive to North America!

Eh? "Her Majesty's Voice"? Don't think so; it's His Master's Voice, after the painting (and later - possibly now erstwhile, not sure - corporate logo).

I hardly buy any DVDs these days, and was never a big record buyer. But even when I did buy more DVDs, I always used online shops, because they were almost always cheaper and more convenient, saving me a trip to the invariably noisy store.

 

[Geck]

Really sad to me. As someone who still buys 3-4 CDs a month, it's been frustrating watching the CD section slowly shrink over the last several years, replaced by DVDs, then games, the Blu-Rays, now books. I have to do online searches now to see if the albums I want are actually at the stores, whereas before there would always be plenty of stock.

I guess I'll be resorting to Amazon more and more, or whatever independent music sellers I can find in the city...

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I'm in the UK and HMV seems to be going through fairly tough times here. The consequence seems to be an attempt to diversify away from the traditional music retailing, which means they no longer have the pretty wide selection they had a few years ago. I guess it's still OK if you want to buy rock and pop records, but the hip-hop and jazz sections seem to have really suffered.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ouch, that's not good as it's the last big music store chain. Can't say I'm too sad though as I never shopped there. Still, the concept of there being no big music store that one can rely on is pretty sad. There's one chain that's mostly in the province of Quebec, and that's Archambault, run by Quebecor Media. I doubt it would happen, but it's always an option for them to buy the stores and run them as Archambaults throughout Canada. They tend to have a rather good selection of both English and French music.

 

[Mooch]

Slightly off-topic, I just found out earlier this year that HMV is U.K.-based when I was there (who knew it stood for "Her Majesty's Voice"?). I always thought it was exclusive to North America!

Eh? "Her Majesty's Voice"? Don't think so; it's His Master's Voice, after the painting (and later - possibly now erstwhile, not sure - corporate logo).

It still is, but not in Canada, apparently (due to licencing issue).

 

[Canadave]

Ouch, that's not good as it's the last big music store chain. Can't say I'm too sad though as I never shopped there. Still, the concept of there being no big music store that one can rely on is pretty sad. There's one chain that's mostly in the province of Quebec, and that's Archambault, run by Quebecor Media. I doubt it would happen, but it's always an option for them to buy the stores and run them as Archambaults throughout Canada. They tend to have a rather good selection of both English and French music.

I dunno... nobody seemed to be interested in acquiring Musicworld or Sam the Record Man () when they folded.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ouch, that's not good as it's the last big music store chain. Can't say I'm too sad though as I never shopped there. Still, the concept of there being no big music store that one can rely on is pretty sad. There's one chain that's mostly in the province of Quebec, and that's Archambault, run by Quebecor Media. I doubt it would happen, but it's always an option for them to buy the stores and run them as Archambaults throughout Canada. They tend to have a rather good selection of both English and French music.

I dunno... nobody seemed to be interested in acquiring Musicworld or Sam the Record Man () when they folded.

True enough. I think the biggest impact for me was losing Sam's. It was a great store, and I even relied on them to order something in at times. The staff was also pretty friendly. Then when they went out of business, I don't know about anywhere else, but MusicWorld took over the location, and they were Ok when they first moved in, but during the last years of the store, I started to feel disenchanted by them. There were at least three times I went in looking for music, after having browsed and seeing something I wanted months prior, only to be told they were removed from the shelves because they weren't selling. Well, fair enough. But to have it happen three times was a blow to me and I was starting to feel as if they weren't supporting the music I liked. And how could I support the bands by buying their albums if I couldn't find their albums in stores.

One particular glaring example of this was a fairly big enough band from Ontario with a big enough label that I couldn't find anywhere. It was puzzling because I'd seen other bands on that label there or anywhere else, and I found that rather depressing considering they claimed to care about the Canadian music industry. In the end, I had to have someone from the States who was seeing one of their shows there to get me one of their albums. It felt rather backwards to me.

And then I heard something surprising from one of the people there during a discussion; that they weren't allowed to sell albums from small local artists and that the rule came from head office. I thought that was odd and against the grain. Why wouldn't they want to help local artists get off the ground? Never went there again, and I can't remember if I ever shopped at HMV when they took over the space.

I do have a small independent record store, and it even sell vinyls, however, the few times I've shopped there didn't exactly inspire me. The owner is rather snobbish and looks down on those who don't know about music as much as he does. Not a very welcoming atmosphere. Though he did tell me something about Vinyls, and it was that most Canadian bands don't put them out anymore because they're so expensive to produce as compared to a CD, and that most of the stuff you do still see are from American bands.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Personally I always feel ripped off even setting foot in HMV. Besides some special offers the generally seem to be the most expensive place to buy these things. I was given a £10 voucher for Christmas and went in to spend it and ended up leaving the shop with a Blu-Ray which was only £3 cheaper than I could have bought it from Amazon, and that's with the £10 off. So while I think it's a shame to see places like these disappear I can't help but feel they brought it on themselves.

 

[nickyboy]

Personally I always feel ripped off even setting foot in HMV. Besides some special offers the generally seem to be the most expensive place to buy these things. I was given a £10 voucher for Christmas and went in to spend it and ended up leaving the shop with a Blu-Ray which was only £3 cheaper than I could have bought it from Amazon, and that's with the £10 off. So while I think it's a shame to see places like these disappear I can't help but feel they brought it on themselves.

I agree completely, every time I walk in there I am shocked at the prices.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

HMV - there isn't a name I've heard in a while. Here in Australia, the local version was sold to Sanity Group, who suck beyond greater than the currently NSW government (who just got kicked out). Before HMV closed, I found JB HiFi and they are the best. huge range.

 

[Worf2DS9]

I used to pop in to the Sparks Street HMV here in Ottawa about twice a week on the way to my bus stop after work, but since I moved I don't go by there anymore and have been mainly getting my DVDs or CDs from Amazon. Last time I was there was to get Let Me In when it came out on DVD, and discovered their big store had closed and they'd moved to a space about half the size a couple of blocks up the street.

When I was going there on a regular basis, though, I did think their prices were pretty high for DVDs compared to Amazon, which is why most of the time I ended up not buying anything. It was still nice to be able to go and browse around the store though.